Field Trip Friday: State Capitol

This summer has been different to say the least. I think we are all missing our life in Cody and being where we are comfortable.  Some aspects of it I am really enjoying....like spending lots of family time together without any distractions (except for that big distraction of finding a new home;) I also am loving that we can just do our own thing every day.  I think the girls are loving that too....but after weeks of this I felt like maybe we needed a little more of a routine.  So I implemented a "summer schedule" that gives some structure, but isn't so rigid that it sucks to fun out of summer.  This gives us all some help in being more productive and it gives the girls a chance to earn some money with "jores" (chores). I also wanted to get out and see some things in our new town, so I decided Fridays would be our Field Trip day.  Last week we went on  a tour of the State Capitol.  

This statue in front is of Esther Hobart Morris.  She played a significant role in legislation that made Wyoming the first government in the world to grant women equal rights.  She later became the first female Justice of the Peace....go girls!!!

The famous gold dome(outside) is plated in 24 carat gold.  This is the interior of the dome.  The ceilings have gorgeous stained glass.

This one is the ceiling of the Senate chambers.

 

We took a picture of this door, because she is from Cody.  Bay was in the same class as her son Connor through  Elementary school.

This big boy is a permanent resident at  the Capitol building.  He is said to weigh in at 3,000 lbs and the 3rd largest bison/buffalo ever recorded (we thought we'd seen bigger in Yellowstone:)

This is a steel cross section from one of the box columns retrieved from the rubble from the World Trade Center.  The column was dedicated by students at a High School in Tennessee along with the US Army and plaques were given to capital cities around the nation to display.  I realized for the first time that Emmrey didn't know about what happened on 9-11...except that it's her birthday:)  She has not been old enough to really go into too much detail and we have always kept it such a positive day and not focused much on the tragedy.  It was good to have a simple discussion with her about it.

This is the Senate chambers.  The girls thought it was great that they could walk around and look at all the names at the desks (obviously they were not in session)  I thought it was cool to learn that there are seats above and to the right that the public can sit in and watch when they are in session....I guess I never knew that:)

Now aren't these the best looking Governors you ever saw...and smartest too:)  How fun that they got to sit in the official chair where the Gov sits during sessions.

I think it was a pretty good field trip....we had fun and hopefully the girls learned a little something too!!